Hello, 2024! January of each year brings on the optimism of new beginnings and fresh starts. For those of you who create measurable new year goals and complete them with the resolve of a SpaceX engineer, I commend you. I aspire to be like you.
But creating a list of goals to launch my figurative Starship isn’t enough to motivate me (although I am seriously considering renaming my future failures “rapid unscheduled disassemblies”). Don’t get me wrong, I know goals are necessary to accomplish what we set out to do. It’s the motivation to complete the goals that I need.
I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’m motivated by the people I admire and their successes. This year, I’ve decided to derive my motivation from the examples and wisdom provided by one individual. And January marks the birthday of this person whose discipline, determination, and initiative are second only to their kindness, compassion, and humility.
I think you may know where I’m going with this.
I will derive motivation from one simple question: WWDD?
That’s right. What Would Dolly Do?
Dolly Parton turns 78 this month. This is a woman who started life in a Tennessee cabin with 11 siblings and created an empire from her songwriting, performances, and business acumen. I could list her awards and achievements, but you have Google for that. Ms. Parton’s appeal is not just about the accolades and the glitz; it's about the infectious joy and authenticity she brings to everything she does.
Moreover, if you look past the flashy clothing, big hair, and incredible figure, you’ll find a woman committed to using her success to improve the lives of the people around her, including her commitment to literacy and education.
As a librarian, her Imagination Library has always had a special place in my heart. Created in 1995, this program was developed to provide free books to children from birth to age five. Ms. Parton started the Imagination Library for children in her home county in East Tennessee. The program mails a free book to registered children each month to inspire a love of reading. Today, her foundation stretches across five countries and has gifted more than 224 million books since its inception. Not bad for a little charity whose first book order was 1,760 books.
So. WWDD?
WWDD is not an original mantra. WWDD appears on bumper stickers and book titles. It is the focus of songs, podcasts, and even the topic of an academic paper on leadership. Her accomplishments are so varied and widespread that the more I dug into her, the more overwhelmed I became. How do I capture the heart and essence of Dolly Parton that inspires so many people and apply it to my own goals and motivations?
I circled back to the Dollywood Foundation and the Imagination Library. The mission of the foundation is based on 4 simple tenets: Dream More. Learn More. Care More. Be More. In her 2009 commencement address at the University of Tennessee, she broke it down for me and 12,000 attendees. She later expanded her speech into a book titled “Dream More,” but I found the motivation I needed from her speech. Most importantly, I found concise instructions for tapping into my motivation.
Dream More
Do not confuse dreams with wishes, she cautions. Dreams and creativity go hand in hand. Dreams serve as the wellspring of creative endeavors, pushing individuals to challenge conventional thinking and explore uncharted territories.
Dreams are where you visualize yourself being successful at what's important to you to accomplish. Now dreams build convictions because you work hard to pay the price to make sure that they come true. Wishes are hoping good things will happen to you, but there's no fire in your gut that causes you to put everything forth, you know, to overcome all the obstacles. So, you have to dream more and never, ever, ever, ever blame somebody else if it doesn't happen. That is in your department.
Many years ago, my daughter, who was in elementary school at the time, came to me with a goal. She wanted to raise money for her school library. My librarian-mom's heart nearly burst with pride. Then she told me she wanted to collect used books from friends, neighbors, and all the families at the school and resell them, and the mom-mom's heart in me deflated just a little with the thought of how much work that was going to be: Collect the books, store the books, sort the books, transport the book, and sell the books.
I confess I may have tried to distract her with something simpler, like food bank visits. But with the stubborness only an 11-year-old can have, she refused to let these challenges stop her, even after I made her draw up a plan to implement this endeavor (her 11-year-old plan was primarily: Collect the books, store the books, sort the books, transport the books, and sell the books). But the fire in her gut to make her dream happen resulted in $1,500 for her school library and reminded me that dreams can become reality with the right motivation.
Learn More
The catalyst for the Imagination Library came from Ms. Parton’s desire to learn more.
I read everything I can get my hands on because it is my belief that if you can read, even if you don't get a chance to get an education, you can learn about everything. And, of course, that was one of the reasons I wanted to work with the Imagination Library. So, if you learn to read, you can learn almost anything. I also believe that learn more means to keep working at making your dreams come true.
We learn not just from our educational endeavors, but just as importantly, we learn from our failures and from taking risks. I return to SpaceX (seriously, you have to check out SpaceX YouTube channel – things explode!). SpaceX operates on the idea that failure can be the key to success.
The very fact that I can weave SpaceX into how Dolly Parton can help us achieve our goals speaks to her motivational powers.
Care More
Obviously, Ms. Parton’s Imagination Library and other philanthropic pursuits demonstrate her commitment to giving back to her community. But caring more can also fuel motivation to help you achieve your goals. What we care about will drive our pursuits.
But caring is about striving for perfection. It's about how you look. It's about how you prepare and how you keep your commitments. Now I hope that you will always care enough to be on time, to look your best, and always give every task and every job everything that you possibly have to give. If you truly care for people, you won't judge them. And then you will learn to appreciate the uniqueness in every single soul.
Life is jam-packed with obligations. Work, friends, family, hobbies, chores, I could go on. We all have this list. These things all vie for our time and attention, and it becomes easy to put many of them on autopilot. I confess to doing too many things just “good enough.” Caring more is about making a commitment to give the best effort to everything. I want to say I will commit to giving everything to every job I have, but I know I will fail. I used to tell my husband: Children, pets, and houseplants. I can keep two out of the three alive at any given time (it's a small comfort that it's the houseplants that shudder when I walk by).
Instead of everything, perhaps it’s more reasonable to make a commitment to the relationships in my life. The foundation of committing to the people in our lives means caring more and, by default, doing our best for them, which translates to doing so many of the things we do each day just a little bit better.
Be More
We only need to Google a list of Ms. Parton’s achievements to see that hard work is the foundation of her success. But her urging us to “be more” should not be mistaken for “achieve more.” By urging us to be more, she encourages us to strive for excellence, to reach deep within ourselves, and to be the best person we can be. Our achievements will be the by-product of being more. Being more is the motivation not just to achieve a specific goal, but to be more as a person and strive for excellence.
And the Imagination Library came from this place, from my desire to do something, to inspire the little kids to read and to learn…You know a loving person is a caring person, and it's hard to be bigger than that.
Ms. Parton draws on her faith for her motivation. But whether it is spirituality, science, nature, or something else, we should draw on the authentic power that is intrinsic to us. This power can’t be granted by others or taken away. This is the power that we can use to be more as a person.
I hope you find the motivation not just to meet your goals but to surpass them. Regardless of whether you use these tenets to achieve your goals, I encourage you to celebrate Ms. Parton’s birthday – read a book, gift a book, watch 9 to 5, upload Dolly Parton Essentials on Apple Music, and/or wear something that glitters. In the words of Ms. Parton herself, "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." Here's to embracing the journey, finding joy in the process, and achieving all you set out to do!
Think you already know WWDD? Start humming Jolene and take our Trivia Tuesday quiz. It’s a new thing we just made up. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for new trivia challenges every other Tuesday (cause we have to do library stuff on the other Tuesdays).
Nicole Tassinari is an associate university librarian and oversees content development. She's the proud mom of three almost-grown children who love to tell her to "just Google it!"